Friday, February 26, 2010

It was decided that Lexie and Romeo would take Snowball back to her condo to be fed while Jon headed to Philly. Making sure that the doorman had her on the list of people allowed in the building, Jon gave her a kiss and left her with the key to the penthouse and the codes for the locks.

Romeo held onto Snowballs leash as they walked up Mercer to her condo. Passing by Bloomingdales the doorman pulled out the little bone he always had for Snowball.

“Well hello Snowball, you have a new friend?” He bent down and ruffled Romeo’s hair.

“Hi Stan, this is Romeo.” Lexie smiled at the doorman. When she had moved in and was out walking one day they struck up a conversation.

“Well hello Romeo, any friend of Snowballs is a friend of mine. Do you like magic tricks?” Stan asked Romeo.

“Hello Mr. Stan, yes I love magic tricks.” Romeo ever the polite child smiled up at Stan and held out his hand to shake hands with him.

When Stan reached out his hand to shake Romeo’s he reached behind Romeo’s ear and pulled out a sucker.

“Now Romeo, I thought we washed out all those suckers out from behind your ear this morning.” Lexie chuckled.

Romeo reached behind his ear to see if there were any more behind it.

“Wow that’s neat Mr. Stan, Thank you for the sucker and the magic trick.” He smiled up at the man.

Moving on up Mercer they came to her building. Putting the key in the door lock she held the door open for Romeo. Bending down she picked up Snowball and they headed to the elevator.

“You live really close to Daddy don’t you Lexie?” He asked as they rode up to the sixth floor.

“Sure do.” She told him.

“But you don’t have a Tommy like daddy does.” He waited for her to open her door.

‘Nope, sure don’t.” She let him into her small but cozy condo. “Roe, why don’t you go into the kitchen and get Snow’s water bowl and food bowl and put then in a bag for me.” He headed to the kitchen while she went into her bedroom and pulled out some things for the night and the next day. She figured Jon would be back by tomorrow afternoon and she’d be coming home. Going into the bathroom next she got her cosmetic bag and tossed a few things in it for the night. She was coming out when she heard Romeo talking to Snowball.

“You going to come and spend the night Snow. Daddy gone to see that mean lady and get Steph and my broders. They going to like you, but you my puppy.” He was sitting in the floor holding snowball to his face.

Lexie smiled and grabbed her laptop case and dropped a few jump drives in the pouch and zipped it shut. Going back into the kitchen she added several cans of dog food for Snowball. They were heading back to the Penthouse when her cell rang.

“Hello, Oh hey, is every thing alright?” She smiled, Jon must have gotten to the Turnpike.

“Yeah, I forgot that Richie is dropping by to pick up the music that I worked on while we were in the mountains and I forgot….” He said.

“Not to worry, where did you put it?” she asked him.

“My guitar case, I put it in the studio, Roe will show you where the studio is, just open the case and the music will be lying on the bottom under Black Beauty.” He told her then swore. “Stupid asshole this isn’t the brickyard five hundred.”

“Look you pay attention to the road; Roe and I’ll find the music and have it ready for him to pick it up.” She waved to his doorman and they headed to the elevator. Inserting his key into the penthouse button they headed up.

“Listen he might want to work in the studio for a while. Tell him I’ll be home tomorrow, he might crash there or go back to his mom’s.” He told her.

“We’ll take care of everything, you drive safe and we’ll see you tomorrow.” She handed the phone down to Romeo.

“Bye daddy, Give Stephie and Momma a kiss for me and tell J. J. and Jakey Snowball is mine!” He smiled up at Lexie.

“We’ll talk about that when I get home Roe, be good for Lexie and Uncle Mookie.” He told him.

‘Sure Daddy. Bye.” He handed the phone back to Lexie.

“You lost a dog, you know that don’t you?” he chuckled.

“Yeah he was telling her a while ago that J.J., Jakey and Stephie might like her but she was his dog.” She chuckled.

“Listen Lex, the traffic is getting bad and I’ll call you when I get to the hotel and checked in.” He told her. He pulled off the turnpike and was heading into Philadelphia.

“Okay, Romeo wants to show me his room. I’ll talk to you later, be careful.” She laughed a little to herself they sounded like and old married couple.

“You got it, Ah hell I missed my turn.” He laughed and signed off the call.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Lexie felt the bed dip and something warm snuggling to her back. This snuggler was larger than Snowball so that must be Romeo had joined them in bed. Lifting her head she looked over at the clock, six am was too early to get up. Her meeting with her editor was at ten. Shifting some in the bed, she was glad that she had gotten up around four and went to the bathroom and put on one of Jon’s Soul shirts and her underwear just incase like at the cabin he joined then in the early morning. Those last few days in the cabin, she and Jon had snuggled on the huge sofa only to be joined by Romeo.

“I know snowball is in the bend of my knee.” He tried to shift and lift his head to look over her shoulder. “I need a favor, how long is your meeting today?”

“About an hour, just go in and let him tell me what promos I have to do and get some press packets to go over, why?” She watched his eyes cloud over.

“That call I got was from my ex, I need to head to Philly.” He reached over her and tenderly brushed a curl of sandy blond hair on his son’s brow.

“I take it that call wasn’t just to say hi were home?” They shifted in the bed so that they could get out. Looking back at Romeo and Snowball in the huge king size bed they slipped out into the hallway.

“You could say that. Seems like we were having a nice time at the cabin, my kids were learning the hard way what it’s like to get new grandparents.” The lead her down to the kitchen and started the coffee pot. “Can you watch Roe for me today while I go to court?”

“You have to go to court?” She about dropped the cups she was taking to the table.

“My son got arrest for protecting his sister. From what I got out of my sixteen year old daughter an her new grandparents don’t approve of her clothes and when she talked back decided to invoke punishment of the spare the rod spoil the child theory.” He slammed his hand on the counter.

Lexie jumped when she heard him hitting the counter.

“Why didn’t they call you before now?” She asked.

“All I got was yelling that I didn’t pick up the phone fast enough and the normal lecture from my ex about why I screwed up with and lost my family. Greg asked me to come and after what has happened I need to be there.”

He turned and was leaning back on the counter as he told her about the call and Stephanie begging him to come and take her home with him. How his next to the youngest was hiding under the bed afraid to come out and be arrested.

“I agree you need to be there. Let me call my editor and reschedule my meeting. I’ll watch Roe as long as you need to be gone.” She told him.

“I don’t want you to reschedule…” He started to say but was stopped when she put her finger over his lips.

“Yes Jon, I will reschedule and you head on to Philly. Actually all I need is a fax machine to get the press packets and the promo schedule and I can handle my meeting over the phone.” She left him in the kitchen and when in search of her cell.

Jon followed her into the living room and watched her call her editor. Walking over he took a notepad and jotted down his fax number for her and then went back into the kitchen to pour the coffee.

“Yeah, just fax me what I need and I’ll call you when I get a chance and we’ll go over my promo schedule.” She sat at the piano and ran her finger down one of the keys the soft tone made her smile. Damn why did I screw around an never finish my piano lessons…don’t think Itsy bitsy spider would sound the same as it did on the old upright, she thought to herself as her editor droned on in her ear.

Jon walked back in and handed her a cup of coffee and mouthed he was heading to the shower. Waiting on her to nod he kissed the top of her head and with cup in hand headed to the shower.

Leaning under the hot spray his thoughts went back to the phone call and the sound of his daughter…his first born…his baby girl, begging him to bring her home with him. His heart broke a little. Man how did his life go from being the poster child for the perfect rock star marriage to being the bad guy? For losing half of what he worked for, but it took two to end his marriage, for him it was the long days on the road and fewer days at home, for her it was Greg, always being there, being the kind of husband she wanted to grow old with, not the Peter Pan she had married.

Jon felt the draft and smiled, he had been hoping she would join him in the shower. The shadow on the shower door made it obvious she was joining him. Reaching to the knobs he turned more cold water on and the spay went from sauna hot to comfortable hot.

“Did you get everything set up?” he asked her.

“Yep, and your fax machine is humming along when I left it.” She stepped under the spray and let the water run over her body.

Whishing she had thought to grab her shampoo she smiled when she felt his adding shampoo to her hair. So she would smell like him until she could go home and pack a small bag. It would be best to keep Romeo here where he felt safe than to move him over to her smaller condo. They hadn’t talked about it but she knew this trip he had to take was not going to be an up and back kind of trip.

“Romeo still asleep?” He asked.

“Sawing logs like his daddy.” She laughed.

“Hey, I do not snore!” He chuckled.

“Like a buzz saw on overtime.” She rinsed the soap from her hair.

“Well, at least I don’t talk in my sleep….oh Jonny…Oh yes.” He commented in a falsetto voice.

They both jumped at the knock on the door.

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” Romeo called from outside the bathroom door.

“Be right there son…go get dressed and I’ll fix you some cereal.” Jon stepped around her in the shower and opened the door, which cased Lexie to shiver, grabbing a towel he made quick work of drying off and pulling on his sweat pants.

“Can Lexie do it? You always put too much milk in it.” He called through the crack in the door.

“See you’ve got another Bongiovi male hooked.” He said as she turned off the shower and reached out for a towel for her hair. Holding it just out of her reach, he watcher her feeling along the rod for the towels.

Giving him a grumpy look she reached up to her long wet chestnut brown hair and ran her fingers down a section and then flicked the water at him.

“Hey, I’m dry here.” He laughed and jumped back. He tossed her the towel as she reached up for another section of hair.

“Go help your son, you two need to talk about your plans for today.” She blew him a kiss and began twisting her hair up in the towel. Every morning at the cabin they had set together at the breakfast bar and discussed what they wanted to do that day, it was easy to see why Romeo had not wanted to leave his dad.